Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced a few days ago that its subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies will offer OEMs its first machine learning SDK for running their own neural network models on devices powered by Snapdragon 820 SoCs. The devices include smartphones, cars and drones among many others. With the introduction of the new Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK, we are making it possible for myriad sectors, including mobile, IoT and automotive to harnesses the power of Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and make high-performance, power efficient on-device deep learning a reality. Qualcomm said in its Q2 earnings call that the company is broadening its presence in "adjacent opportunities," i.e., in adjacent markets where it has growth opportunities. The company has such opportunities in the sectors Brotman mentioned, as presented above in bold.

Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is bringing neural networks to its Snapdragon 820 chips. The chipmaker has announced that it will be shipping out software development kits later in 2016 giving its chips some new smart features. Qualcomm is making use of its 820 system on a chip's "heterogeneous compute capabilities" with its Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine built atop of the company's Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform. Developers can use the SDK to turn Qualcomm's chip into a deep learning machine on which to develop and compile neural network models. The potential applications for portable deep learning in mobile devices are inexhaustible.

Qualcomm has been talking about their deep learning machine intelligence platform, Zeroth, for a number of months now. When the company first started talking about including the technology into System-on-Chips, this might have meant that the Snapdragon 820 was going to include a Qualcomm Neural Processing Unit, or NPU, as part of the hardware. Instead, Qualcomm included the Zeroth software on the device rather than a core. Over the weekend, Qualcomm has announced that they are releasing the Zeroth SDK so that developers can start to utilize this specialist software on the device rather than relying on cloud computing to process this data. Neural processing has been used for a number of years now.

The answers to these questions determines how you respond to the situation. If there are people moving in and out of the house and loud music playing, it's probably a party. If no one is visible and the house is dark, you might be witnessing a break-in -- or someone may simply have forgotten to latch the door properly. We assign "weights" to these probabilities and evaluate the situation accordingly -- and we do it unconsciously and at extraordinary speed compared with a conventional computer. Conventional neural networks try to duplicate this process.

Qualcomm announced the deep learning software development kit (SDK) for the company's Snapdragon 820 SoC. Qualcomm's deep learning SDK is called the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, and it's powered by the company's Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform, with optimizations designed to take advantage of the heterogeneous compute capabilities of the Snapdragon SoC. Among other things, it may be able to more effectively block malware on mobile devices. Qualcomm said that the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK will give developers a "powerful, energy efficient platform" that will help them create mobile neural network tools that can be used for scene detection, text recognition, natural language processing and more. The idea is that OEMs can run their own neural network applications locally, on-device, and don't have to communicate with the cloud.

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced at the Embedded Vision Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. The SDK, called the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, is powered by the Qualcomm Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform and is optimized to utilize Snapdragon's heterogeneous compute capabilities to provide OEMs a powerful, energy efficient platform for delivering intuitive and engaging deep learning-driven experiences on device. This SDK is the latest software addition to Snapdragon 820 and demonstrates Qualcomm Technologies' continued leadership by adding value for our customers to the Snapdragon portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, with the introduction of the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, is the first mobile SOC provider to offer a deep learning toolkit optimized for mobile. This SDK will allow OEMs to run their own neural network models on Snapdragon 820 devices such as smart phones, security cameras, automobiles and drones, all without a connection to the cloud.

Qualcomm Technologies, with the introduction of the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, is the first mobile SOC provider to offer a deep learning toolkit optimized for mobile. This SDK will allow OEMs to run their own neural network models on Snapdragon 820 devices such as smart phones, security cameras, automobiles and drones, all without a connection to the cloud. Common deep learning user experiences that can be realized with the SDK are scene detection, text recognition, object tracking and avoidance, gesturing, face recognition and natural language processing. The Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform is a Snapdragon-optimized software platform designed for mobile machine learning. Zeroth technology currently drives visual intelligence software such as Snapdragon Scene Detect and advanced malware detection software found in Snapdragon Smart Protect.

Qualcomm has talked about putting "silicon brains" in mobile devices and is now providing tools to train smartphones to recognize people, objects, gestures, and even emotions. Phones like Samsung's Galaxy S7 and LG's G5 that use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chips will get deep-learning capabilities with the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine software development kit, announced on Monday. The SDK will include a run-time that will exploit chip features so smartphones can accomplish deep-learning tasks like tracking objects and recognizing sounds. The kit could also be used in self-driving cars and autonomous drones and robots. Computers can already recognize people in images, as seen on Facebook.